The Mentor's Favor

Troy Partridges department, notoriously short on women, had just accepted two new female grad students.
He told me they were neck and neck in terms of skill, but their personalities were night and day.
One afternoon, the quiet, reserved one, Nina Croft, worked up the courage to drop a hint.
Professor Partridge and Lexi Morgan... they spend a lot of time in his office. And the door is always locked.
Lexi.
The other student.
Just last weekend, Id bumped into her and her boyfriend. Shed grinned and chirped, "Hi, Mrs. Partridge!"
Later, she would come to me in tears.
"Mrs. Partridge, you're the only one who can help me..."

1
"Mrs. Partridge! Fancy seeing you here."
Id run into them at the mallLexi and her boyfriend, one of Troys students.
I offered a polite smile. The young couple was holding hands, looking every bit in love.
Noticing my gaze, Lexi leaned in, her voice a conspiratorial whisper.
"Please, Mrs. Partridge, you have to keep this a secret for me. The professor would be so mad if he found out."
My brow furrowed. "He gets involved in things like that?"
She nodded, her eyes wide with a practiced sort of sorrow.
The memory faded, and I looked down at the files on my deskthe profiles of Troy's two new students.
Lexi Morgan came from a wealthy family, her personality as bright and outgoing as her pedigree.
Nina Croft was her opposite in every way.
Her hint today was clearly a calculated move, born from self-preservation. After all, if a mentor was having an affair with a student, it would inevitably lead to favoritism, a gross injustice to those who were genuinely working their tails off. And for Nina, who had clawed her way out of a small, struggling town, the stakes were impossibly high.
Thats why shed risked telling me.
But Troy would he really do something like that?
After all our years together, I couldn't imagine it. I just couldn't.
That evening, I got a friend request on my social media. It was Lexi.
Hi Mrs. Partridge, it's Lexi! Professor Partridge is in a meeting.
He asked me to tell you he wont be home tonight.
A knot formed in my stomach.
Is everything okay?
A massive data set from one of the major experiments was corrupted. Months of work down the drain. [Crying emoji]
Troy didn't come home for three straight days. When he finally called, I learned the full story. It was Ninas data that had been flawed, an error she hadnt caught in time, forcing them to scrap the entire experiment and start over.
"I swear," he sighed into the phone, "women in this field... such a headache."
His voice was more weary than angry, with an almost... indulgent edge to it.
Then, a new message from Lexi popped up:
Mrs. Partridge, the professor is furious. He had the student who messed up in his office for hours this afternoon, just tearing into her. Please try to cheer him up when you see him. I really don't want to get held back a year!
I wasn't one for deep conversations with near-strangers, so I simply replied, You're all working so hard.
When Troy finally came home that night, the exhaustion was etched onto his face, though it couldn't quite dull the sharp intellect in his eyes. He saw me and flashed his usual smile, warm and reassuring.
"Trapped in that lab for three days. I'm dead on my feet."
He pulled me into his arms, letting out a long sigh.
"It's good to be home."
"I made you some restorative broth. Drink it, then get some real sleep."
He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.
"Thank you, my love."
Just then, another message from Lexi.
Mrs. Partridge, is the professor feeling any better? We're all dreading his thunder face tomorrow.
I chuckled, showing the phone to Troy.
"Your student is quite the character. She's been messaging me all day, asking about your mood."
He rolled over, his voice already thick with sleep.
"She's the loudest one in the entire lab. Just ignore her."
I typed back a quick reply.
He's fine, don't worry.
Lexi: Yay!

2
The next day, I made a call.
Then I headed to the university, a box of freshly baked pastries in hand.
The departments break room was buzzing with activity.
"Nina, please, for the love of God, don't mess up again. Look at these dark circles!"
"Yeah, my girlfriend is starting to think I'm ghosting her."
"I'm so sorry, everyone. It was my fault. The professor already chewed me out for it. I promise it will never happen again."
"Alright, you guys, lay off," Lexi chimed in, defending her. "Give Nina a break. She feels terrible. Let's just focus on getting this done together."
As she finished, she turned and her eyes lit up when she saw me.
"Mrs. Partridge! You're here! Did you bring the professor another treat?"
I smiled and nodded. "Hope I'm not interrupting."
Nina mumbled a quiet "Hello, Mrs. Partridge" along with the others before slipping out of the room.
A moment later, she returned, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Troy.
"Let me guess," Troy said, taking my hand. "Pastries today?"
One of the male students, mouth full, let out a dramatic groan. "Hey! I just started eating, how am I already full from all this sweetness?"
"Oh, shut up and eat. Not even this much sugar can shut your mouth."
Amid the playful banter of the students, Nina stood silently to the side, not touching a thing. She seemed out of place.
"Why aren't you having any?" I asked her gently.
Her eyes flickered toward Troy for a split second.
"Oh, she has a sensitive stomach," Troy answered for her, almost reflexively. "She can't handle things that are too sweet."
I paused, taken aback.
"Nina, you can't eat sweets? Well, in that case, I'll just have to take yours!" Lexi chirped, already reaching for the pastry. She seemed to be enjoying them immensely.
A week later, the call I'd been waiting for came.
"Elara, we found something..."
There was a little dessert shop on the cafe strip near the university. Lexi was a frequent customer.
And the trash can in Troys office often contained packaging from that very shop.
The dates almost always lined up with Lexi's purchases.
I pictured her smiling face, the one that called me Mrs. Partridge without a hint of shame.
Was she that good of an actress? To face me without a single crack in her facade?
Before bed, I was scrolling through my social feed.
A new post from Lexis boyfriend: One more year of grinding. Two diplomas, one finish line.
The picture was of their intertwined hands.
"I heard," I said casually to Troy, "that you've been telling your students not to date?"
He let out a soft laugh.
"I don't have that much time on my hands. I just advised the two women in my lab to try and focus on their studies. This field is already tougher for them, and a relationship is bound to be a distraction. I'm just looking out for them."
"A little sexist, don't you think?" I teased.
"Not at all. Women are forces of nature. Look at you, a queen in the boardroom, while I'm just stuck staring at tedious experiments and endless lines of code."
After undergrad, we'd chosen completely different paths. Troy stayed in academia, climbing the ladder from masters to PhD. I went out and started my own company. Those early days of supporting each other, while not exactly impoverished, were a defining chapter of our lives. During Troys toughest stretch, my company had just started to find its footing. For two years, I covered all of his living and academic expenses.
Now, we were both successful in our own right, our love supposedly as strong as ever.
If only Nina hadn't planted that seed of doubt.
The dean of the department fell ill, and I went to the hospital to visit him. As I rounded a corner in the hallway, I heard familiar voices.
"Professor Partridge really babies Lexi and Nina, doesn't he? Hours-long tutoring sessions, giving them second and third author credits on the last paper... How come we don't get that kind of treatment?"
"I think he favors Lexi more."
"Well, yeah. She knows how to talk, how to suck up. She's always bringing him those fancy desserts."
"Honestly, I think the professor is pretty calculating. Nina's from a nobody town, so when she makes a tiny mistake, he lectures her for hours. Last time, she was in his office for two solid hours. When she came out, her eyes were all red and puffy."
"It wasn't a tiny mistake, though, was it? She messes up all the time. I was actually surprised she got second author credit."
Listening to their gossip, a thought flashed through my mind, too quick to grasp.
After a brief chat with the dean, I drove straight to the university.
Just as I reached the lab, Lexi came out to throw something away.
"Mrs. Partridge... are you here to see the professor?"
Her usual bubbly energy was gone, replaced by a disconnected, hollow look.

3
"Lexi, are you not feeling well?" I asked, concerned.
She forced a weak smile and shook her head. "You might have to wait a bit. The professor and Nina are in his office, working on a report."
"Why are you here all by yourself?"
She sighed heavily. "Everyone else went to the hospital to see the dean. The professor told me and Nina to stay behind and fix the corrupted data. But..."
Understanding dawned on me.
"He made you do it all by yourself?"
Lexi bit her lip and nodded. "Nina and I are a team. The professor said her background is... difficult, and that I should look out for her. But it's not easy for me either! Why do I always have to take the fall for her mistakes?"
She quickly added, "I'm just venting, Mrs. Partridge. Please don't tell the professor I said any of this."
Either my ability to read people had completely failed me, or she was a world-class actress. There wasn't a flicker of deception in her eyes.
"Don't worry, I won't. How long have they been in there?"
"Over an hour."
My thoughts were a tangled mess. I changed the subject.
"That little bakery on the cafe strip seems popular. Have you tried it?"
At the mention of food, Lexi's eyes brightened, some of the gloom lifting from her face.
"Oh my god, yes! It's amazing. Especially the matcha mille crepeit's sweet but not too rich. I've seen the professor buying stuff from there a lot, too."
That fleeting thought returned, crystal clear this time.
"Really? He's never mentioned it. When I brought those pastries the other day, I had no idea your classmate couldn't eat them. I feel terrible. I'll bring something different for you all next time."
Lexi frowned. "That's weird. I've known her for ages and I never knew that. Besides, I buy her stuff from there all the time and she's never said no."
"You mean, you often bring her treats?"
"Yeah. I thought she loved them."
My heart sank. I pictured Troy and Nina walking into the break room together that day. I hadn't noticed it then, but thinking back, they had been standing incredibly close, a natural, unthinking proximity.
It wasn't until dusk that the office door finally opened.
Only Nina came out.
Head down, she rushed forward and bumped right into me, letting out a startled shriek.
"What's wrong?"
Troy's voice, laced with anxiety, called out from the office.
"Mrs. Partridge... it's you. I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking." Nina's voice was trembling.
"Elara, what are you doing here?" Troy asked. As he saw me, his hand was already reaching for Ninas arm, steadying her. He noticed my gaze and snatched his hand back as if hed been burned.
"I won't disturb you. Goodbye, Professor. Mrs. Partridge."
Her small frame practically fled down the hall.
Suddenly, everything made a sickening kind of sense.
The silence in the car was heavy. Neither of us spoke.
Troy's expression was tense, a look I recognized. It was the face he made when dealing with a difficult problem.
"Are the cakes from that bakery any good?"
His hands, gripping the steering wheel, relaxed slightly.
"You went?"
"Not yet. Just passed by. I heard one of your students is a big fan."
Troy had already regained his usual composure. The tension I'd seen moments before might as well have been a figment of my imagination.
"Lexi can be a bit... overeager. She knows I have a sweet tooth, so she's tried to bribe me more than a few times. But I'm a professional, Elara. I would never give her second author credit just for a few pastries."
"And what about Nina? I hear you're always giving her a hard time. You're not picking on her just because she's quiet and doesn't know how to suck up to her mentor, are you?"
Troy laughed, a genuinely amused sound.
"I'm tailoring my approach to the student. But I'll admit, mentoring women is more trouble than it's worth. Always on the verge of tears."
He sighed. "I'm not accepting any more female students after this. These two are enough of a headache."
"Oh?" I asked, feigning interest. "Which one is the crybaby?"
"Who else? The one who makes the most noise. Probably a spoiled little princess at home. I'm not about to coddle her."
He was talking about Lexi.

4
Back home, after my shower, I urged Troy to take his.
I watched as he plugged his phone in to charge, then unplugged it and took it with him into the bathroom.
What a coincidence.
I was scrolling through a forum online when I saw a question:
For those who start with a significant disadvantage in life, is it wrong to take a shortcut?
The top-voted answer read:
If a shortcut presents itself to you, consider it fate. The unfairness of your starting point will be balanced out somewhere along the way. Before I met him, I never imagined that a single look could save me years of struggle... All you have to do is work hard, and destiny will favor you in the most unexpected ways. Keep fighting.
I posted a reply: OP, it sounds like you have an incredible story. Would you mind sharing? Stressed-out grad student here in need of some inspiration. Waiting eagerly!
Ten minutes later, she responded.
Thanks for asking. I come from one of the poorest towns in the country, a true rock-bottom starting point. But I fought my way through every obstacle to get into a master's program, and that's where I met my guardian angelmy mentor. Because of my background, I'm naturally slower than others. Things my peers master in one try take me three or four. A student who drags everyone down like me should be despised by their mentor, but he's different. And of course, I am different, too... I've been given so many opportunities for private coaching. He says that when he looks at me, he sees his younger self, and he wants to give me the chances he never had. You can call it a shortcut, but I call it proof that opportunity only comes to those who are prepared.
Reading that, my earlier suspicions solidified into a cold, hard certainty that chilled me to the bone.
Troy was sleeping with his student, Nina. And he was using Lexi as a smokescreen.
Nina's "warning" to me hadn't been a warning at all. It was a vicious, calculated movethe real culprit pointing the finger at an innocent person.
I had no idea how far they had gone.
When Troy came out of the bathroom and tried to wrap his arms around me, a wave of physical revulsion washed over me.
"What's wrong?" His voice was husky, tinged with desire.
"I don't feel well. Let's just go to sleep."
A few days later, a scandal erupted at Northwood University. A student had allegedly tried to seduce her mentor, an "academic siren" trying to sleep her way to the top. The mentor himself had reported her, and she was now facing a university investigation.
The online posts mentioned the detail about the desserts. In a flash of insight, I understood everything.
I immediately checked Lexis social media. Her profile was wiped clean, a blank slate.
I called Troy to ask what was happening.
"Elara, listen to me, and please don't be angry. It was Lexi. She... she tried to seduce me. The shamelessness of it! I had my suspicions before, and I tried to give her chances to back off, but..."
I fought the urge to call out his lies right then and there.
After I hung up, I got a friend request. It was Nina.
Mrs. Partridge, what I told you before was true! But the professor didn't betray you. It was Lexi who was chasing him, relentlessly. This time she went too far, and he couldn't protect her as a student anymore. He had to report her, even though it pained him.
Is there any proof of this?
The professor said so himself. Don't you believe him?
I didn't reply. My mind was racing, trying to figure out what I could do, but it was all a chaotic blur.
Outside, a storm was brewing.
The doorbell rang.
Soaking wet, Lexi stood on my doorstep. The moment she saw me, the tears started to fall.
"Mrs. Partridge... I didn't do it... it wasn't me... Please believe me, help me... please, it really wasn't me..."
Her eyes were wild, her words a jumbled, desperate plea.
Once I got her settled with a warm mug of tea, her hands were still trembling.
"It's okay, Lexi. Take a deep breath. Tell me exactly what happened."
Her gaze flickered with fresh terror.
"Professor Partridge... and Nina... they were in his office. They were... kissing. That's all I saw.
"The professor told me that if I kept my mouth shut, I would graduate without any problems.
"I promised, I really did. I was too scared to say anything.
"But just a day later, Troy reported me. And the witness he brought forward... was Nina."

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